The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Coulier Adam Newman (center) of local band Coulier is back in town to perform Saturday after moving to New York to pursue a career in comedy. [Click to enlarge]

Adam Newman had an "Office Space" moment when he decided he had to leave Athens.

"I was on my sixth hour of making sure paper didn't jam on the scanner [at work], so I was watching and straightening paper and it got to the point where I didn't want to do that anymore," said the 2005 University alumnus of his move to Brooklyn, N.Y., in July of 2006 to pursue stand-up comedy.

Newman returns to Athens Saturday for his second homecoming comedy performance at the 40 Watt Club.

Since moving, Newman has taken improvisational comedy courses at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, modeled for fashion photographer Terry Richardson and appeared as an extra in a gay pornographic movie in addition to stand-up comedy.

For Saturday's performance, the lineup includes Heather Fink, with whom Newman hosts a monthly comedy show called "Street Meat" at Cake Shop in Manhattan.

Street Meat's program, which includes videos, doing characters and stand-up as a comedy variety show, will inform the format of the 40 Watt performance, Newman said.

The show will feature the reunion of Newman's band Coulier, jokingly named after actor Dave Coulier, who played "Uncle Joey" on the 1990s television show "Full House."

"We're very tongue-in-cheek instrumental metal," Newman said. "We're very technically proficient but at the same time we could only take ourselves so seriously."

This sense of humor included a variety of large-scale pranks and gags during the band's time in Athens.

"We thought it'd be fun if, at one of our CD release shows, we didn't play any of our songs and taught our friends how to play our songs," Newman said.

Continued...

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